Spike made his way back to Willy's. When he walked through the door, the Fyarl from earlier was sitting at the bar, a glass half full before him. "Now Spike," Willy said, holding his hands out, "I think you've done enough damage for one night."

The demon lifted it's glass in a toast. That was the nice thing about Fyarls; they didn't hold a grudge. Well, that and they were always up for a fight.

Hiding himself in the darkest corner, Spike was on his second bottle when Xander walked through the door. "Thought I told you to bugger off," Spike said as Xander sat down across from him.

Grabbing the bottle out of Spike's hand, Xander said, "No, actually you told me we'd never be buggering again."

"Told you, I won't tell the girls what a dirty little perv you are. So scram, vamoose, go find some nice little human to make a life with."

"I had a life," Xander said, taking a swig. "A life I was pretty happy with, mind you. Ah, ah, ah," he added as Spike tried to grab the bottle back. "You're the one who broke my heart, remember. Means I get to drown my sorrows."

"What the hell do you mean, I broke your heart? I was blackmailing you. Not like you had a choice. You're the perv who didn't want the girls to know, like some sodding weak bastard." Spike's challenge trailed off.

Xander stared at him a long while.

"If you're not gonna answer," Spike said with a nod toward the bottle, "least you could do is share."

"You really don't get it, do you Spike?" Xander finally said, "And I was glad of that because I figured you needed that sense of power over me to keep, well, you know."

Spike couldn't believe that Xander still had it in him to blush whenever sex came up. "Shagged, luv."

"Spike," Xander shouted, turning his head so he wouldn't see Spike's expression as he finally told him the truth. "It was never an issue. OK, I'm a bit creepified by the idea of Willow knowing details, and she'd worm them out, that's for sure, but so what?" It's not like they didn't already know I'm gay."

"But," Spike sputtered.

"But nothing," Xander said. "That night you caught me masturbating? I was fantasizing about you. I let you think you were blackmailing me because, well at first I was about to get laid, and later I figured you'd leave if I didn't keep up the charade, but since you're leaving anyway..."

"You lied to me," Spike said, sounding oddly happy about it.

"Yeah," Xander said, turning to face him. "Imagine that."

"And you, a White Hat, a force of good in the world, care about me, the Big Bad?" Spike sounded like he didn't believe it.

Xander put his face in his hands, not replying, sitting there in silence until he rose to his feet in one graceful motion. "You're right, what the hell was I thinking?" Grabbing Spike's jacket, Xander tried to pull him to his feet.

Spike looked at Xander as if in awe, and then grinned. "You care enough to blackmail me?"

Xander, an angry retort on his lips, stopped as soon as he got a good look at Spike's face, where uncertainty warred with hope. Xander's smile was both sad – realizing your undead lover, seemingly invincible and above it all, has a heart full of insecurities will do that – and confident as he realized that heart was his. "Yeah," he said, reaching out and brushing his hand across Spike's temple. "I do."

As they kissed, Spike heard a sniffle from the bar, and then the Fyarl grunting in query. "I'm just so glad to see them working things out." Willy paused to blow his nose. "Maybe now Spike'll stop ruining my business."

Blinking in surprise, Xander said, "Well, yeah. I've known Willow since forever, and she knows everything, well, she knew everything until we started, um, got together."

"Tonight?" Spike asked, bouncing up and down like a kid at Christmas.

"Are you crazy? It's Christmas Eve or technically Christmas Day, well not day exactly, but the point is they're either asleep or busy with Christmasy things. Well, not Willow, being Jewish and all, but still she's probably asleep by now," Xander finished hoping Spike had made sense of his babble.

"Tomorrow then?"

"Sure," Xander said.

Pulling Xander in close, Spike grabbed his ass. "Let's get home and work on some details to share with..."

"No," Xander shouted. "There will be no sharing of details."

Spike stepped away and stood there, as if he couldn't believe what Xander had just said.

"Spike," Xander whined. "Willow is like a sister to me. I really don't want to know what explicit details she's heard about my sex life."

Spike pouted.

Xander closed his eyes in defeat. "No details while I'm close enough to hear them."

"Sure," Spike said, starting to pull Xander toward the door again.

Xander didn't move.

"I'll just make sure you hear everything I tell her later," Spike explained.